


Popsicle

by KDblack



Series: Dragon Ball Collection [11]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mad scientist Bulma, cannibalism mention, technically Raditz is there but he's dead the entire time, what did happen to Raditz's body anyway?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KDblack/pseuds/KDblack
Summary: In the chaos after Raditz’s arrival, Bulma put his corpse in a freezer and forgot about it. About a decade later, Vegeta goes looking for a snack. He finds… Raditz.
Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta
Series: Dragon Ball Collection [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696063
Comments: 44
Kudos: 83





	Popsicle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Evilkitten3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilkitten3/gifts).



> I had to do it. I just had to.

Vegeta wasn’t expecting to find a corpse in one of Bulma’s basement freezers, so it takes him a second to realize what he’s looking at. When the pieces click together, he snorts, impressed despite himself. Honestly, this woman. She can’t fight to save her life or perform even the most basic levels of ki sensing, but she has all the mannerisms of a conqueror. Including the part where she stashes away the remains of her defeated enemies until she can find a use for them. He wonders idly who the frozen mass of muscle, damaged armour, and long dark hair was before ending up in Bulma’s clutches. And then, because Vegeta can afford to indulge in idle curiosity now, he heaves the body up and squints at its frost-covered face.

A sharply angled jaw. The echo of a wicked smirk. The splintered remains of a scouter clinging to one ear. Dark, beady eyes that Vegeta should not still be able to recognize on sight. He drops the body and jumps backward, bristling.

“Bulma!” he roars, sending out an extra ki pulse at her location automatically. She probably won’t even notice, but right now, he doesn’t even care.

“What?” she yells back from the floor above.

“Get down here!”

“Don’t order me around!”

He breathes in through gritted teeth. “The hell is in your freezer?!”

A long pause. Then her ki signature begins shuffling toward the elevator. Good. Vegeta spends the agonizing minutes it takes her to get downstairs glaring intently at the still-open freezer. Raditz’s hair is poking up. It makes him vaguely ill and he refuses to think about why. When she finally pokes her head into the room, he’s seriously considering punching his stomach before it starts actively trying to rebel.

What’s wrong with him? He’s lived a life surrounded by corpses, most of which he created himself. He should not be feeling sick about a single body that he didn’t even kill.

Unnaturally light blue eyes go from Vegeta’s corner to the freezer and then back again. “Oh, you found Raditz! Jeez, here I thought it was something important.”

Vegeta kind of loves that blasé demeanor of hers. She is not a warrior, but she has a killer instinct, this soft, fragile woman who breaks every rule of life as he knows it. Right now, however, he wishes her mental armour was a bit less impenetrable. “Why is Raditz in your freezer?”

She snorts. “Well, I had to preserve him somehow. He was our first real alien, Piccolo and Kami excepted – an amazing research opportunity! But things were kind of a mess back then, so I ended up tucking him away for later. Been walking past that freezer every other week for years, telling myself I’ll get around to it, but I never do.”

“A… research opportunity?”

“Duh. I did a bunch of scans before I put him away, which helped me figure out what the Saiyan baseline is supposed to be.” She shuffles over to the freezer and gives the side of Raditz’s dead face an affectionate pat with gloved hands. The sight makes Vegeta feel… something. “You, Goku, and the brats all owe your lives to Raditz at some point or another. Future me probably used him as a base for the heart virus medicine, too.” She grins fiercely, triumphantly. “After all the trouble he caused us, it seems only fair.”

“You used the first Saiyan to be killed on your planet’s soil to figure out how to keep the rest of the Saiyan population alive.”

“I try and keep my friends breathing,” Bulma agrees. She leans her hip up against the freezer and studies him, her hair up in a bun, wearing one of the mechanic’s jumpsuits she’s become fond of since the brat – Trunks – started running around. “Anyway, it’s not like we had any idea how to bury him properly. None of you guys talked about Saiyan burial practices and Goku doesn’t remember anything. Seemed impolite to just cremate him or put him the ground. But then I got so used to him being in there that I forgot to ask!”

Vegeta has precious few memories of Saiyan civilians. For decades, he’s been trying to convince himself that there were none, that everyone on his home planet was a warrior in their own right, that they all could have fought against Frieza and lived if they’d just had a chance. Now, looking at her, he wonders if any of his people were like this: frail bodies and bulletproof minds, taking apart everything that hurt them and ransacking the ruins for armour and medicine. Soldiers in their own right, but fighting a kind of war that he has precious little experience with. 

“This is fitting,” he says finally. 

She whistles. “Damn, you really hated this guy, huh?”

“Yes.” Obviously. What else could this thick, dark emotion in his gut be but hate? “But also, Saiyan burial practices involved a lot of ritualized cannibalism, so it’s appropriate to keep him in the freezer.”

Bulma makes a face. “Yeah, uh, mind if we don’t do that?”

He scowls at her, relieved. “You killed him. He’s your problem now.”

“Right, guess he’s staying in the freezer indefinitely. Until I have a new idea to test on him. I love how durable Saiyans are – I’ve defrosted this guy like sixty times and he still hasn’t started decaying.” She keeps talking, gesturing wildly with her hands, but Vegeta is no longer listening. This whole scenario is still… disquieting… but he understands why now. As long as there’s a reason – a good reason, not some bullshit being flung around to justify post-humous humiliation – he can accept this. Besides, it really is fitting that the failure of a Saiyan who set all of this off redeem himself in death. 

One day, a fate like this will await Vegeta, except there won’t even be something productive waiting at the end. Just punishment for crimes that can never be forgiven. So no, he won’t protest about what happened to Raditz’s body. In some ways, he’s glad to see it. Vegeta’s so busy thinking about this that he hardly notices Trunks’ ki signature getting closer until tiny footsteps pad into the basement. 

“Hey, mom, can I – oh.” Those same wide blue eyes, like the flicker of power beyond the gods, dart around the room before settling on the freezer. “Dad found Uncle Raditz, huh?”

“Yup,” Bulma says, popping the ‘p’ sound.

Uncle Raditz? No, more importantly – “Did everyone know about this but me?!”

Trunks shrugs and laces his arms behind his head. “Sometimes mom hides ice cream in these freezers. I had to check.”

“That ice cream is to keep me going during research binges, brat.”

“You can spare a popsicle or twenty, mom!”

Never mind, Vegeta thinks. Everything about this is terrible. “Close the damn freezer before he thaws out. I’m going to the Gravity Chamber.”


End file.
